Northwest looks to reduce fleet ownership costs

Northwest Airlines is seeking to lower its annual fleet ownership costs by $400 million as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring. Senior VP-Finance Dave Davis told reporters in a conference call that the airline faces greater challenges than other bankrupt carriers regarding its aircraft costs because "pre-filing [for bankruptcy] we predominately owned our fleet" whereas others have a larger percentage of leased aircraft. "There's a wide disparity among airlines in how fleets are ...